THE UK is to suffer in heavy downpours and powerful lightning storms as a deeply unstable Atlantic weather system strikes on Thursday, it has been warned.

The Met Office warned that “heavy” showers would accompany “gusty winds, lighting and hale” as the afternoon approached. Meteorologist Aidan McGivern explained: “There’s a window of fine weather moving north across the UK. Following this, the cloud returns and some heavy rainfall for northern England into southern Scotland and Northern Ireland during the afternoon.